Metro Inc. has launched a pilot project that includes 11 grocery stores in Montreal, such as Metro and discount Super C stores, to give away soon-to-be-expired or unwanted food to food banks. The program helps to make use of food that would normally be thrown out and give it to those who desperately need it. Stores that were closest to food banks and organizations collecting the food were chosen for the project. Some of the organizations involved are the Welcome Hall Mission in Montreal and Action Nouvelle Vie on the South Shore.

The pilot project, originally intended to last 12 weeks, has extended its time and has saved 165 kilos of food per store per week from becoming waste. That amounts to saving 23 tonnes of waste, or 550 servings per week.

Metro collaborated with sustainable food brokerage La Tablée des Chefs to get in touch with the food banks and organizations.

Chobani has a new addition to its team as Dr. Robert C. Post has joined the company as a senior director for nutrition and regulatory affairs. Post previously worked as executive director for USDA’S Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, and most recently, as chief science officer at nutrition consultance firm FoodMinds.

Post will be reporting to Dr. Alejandro Mazzotta in his new position. He has also previously been a nutrition advisor for First Lady Michelle Obama and has collaborated with the White House on the “Let’s Move!” initiative.

“I’m extremely proud to be joining a company that is largely responsible for transforming one of the most important food categories in America,” Post told Food Navigator-USA. 

Researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Tufts University’s Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging found in a preliminary study that the brain is capable of being trained to prefer healthy food to unhealthy food. The study involved 13 overweight and obese men and women, eight of whom enrolled in a weight loss program called the iDiet while the remaining five were the “control group” who were not interfered with for six months.

Participants had MRI brain scans taken at the start and the end of the six-month study. End results showed that there was an increased sensitivity to low-calorie food in the brain, specifically in the area of the brain associated with addiction and learning. The results indicated that the participants had an increased level of enjoyment by the idea of healthy food, and a decreased interest in junk food.

“We don’t start out in life loving French fries and hating, for example, whole wheat pasta,” says senior and co-corresponding author Susan B. Roberts, Ph.D. “This conditioning happens over time in response to eating repeatedly what is out there in the toxic food environment.”

There has been recent speculation about the safe supply of chia seeds, and Glanbia Nutritionals’ General Manager Anne Brown says that the kill step when processing raw ingredients such as chia is crucial.

“If you’re not using a kill step in your process, you should not be using a raw grain. In dairy that’s obvious to people, but in grains, it appears to be less so,” she told Food Navigator-USA. “Some of our very big customers are extremely aware of this and are ready to back the technology to put the public at risk, but there’s still some misunderstanding.”

Chia is full of protein, calcium, fiber, omega-3 fatty acid, alpha linoleic acid antioxidants. Flax is also high in protein, fiber and omega-3s. However, there have been concerns about unsterilized chia as a recent salmonella outbreak that spread to over 50 people in the U.S. and Canada was linked to the consumption of chia powder. Glanbia has opened a food-grade processing facility in South Dakota that is specifically built to closely monitor the processing.

The summer Fancy Food Show hosted a lot of food companies making their contributions to the industry this year. Fiber and protein-packed snacks were on the rise as well as the use of peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas. Bean chips from The Good Bean that combine chickpeas with lentils, navy beans and pea protein with sweet potato and quinoa were a hit at the show. Maya Kaimal, Saffron Road and Biena Foods were other names that continued the chickpea snacks trend.

“People are tryint to give up their potato chips for something with a healthier profile, but they also crave taste and texture. Roasted chickpeas are tasty, crunchy and satisfying without all the calories and fat,” Biena Foods founder Poorvi Patodin told Food Navigator-USA.

Beanitos was one of the companies offering the new Beanitos puffs with 4g of fiber, 5g of protein, 4g fat and 120 calories. Another ingredient making an appearance across the booths was seaweed. Brands like Ocean’s Halo and Seasnax featured seaweed chips and roasted seaweed sheets respectively, taking advantage of seaweed’s high-fiber, protein, vitamin and mineral content.

According to a recent survey conducted by Ipsos Reid, more than eight in 10 Canadians that use the Internet have been online shopping for cosmetics, furniture, pet products and more in the past year. The study showed that 82 per cent of Canadians made online purchases, with those between the ages of 18 to 34 being the most avid online shoppers. 92 per cent of the younger consumers had purchased an item online, with the number a slightly reduced 82 per cent for ages 35 to 54, and a 74 per cent for those aged 55 and older. The average amount of reported online spending was $954 for the year.

Cosmetics and beauty products were the most commonly purchased online as sales were up six per cent from last year, followed by furniture and housewares, which experienced a five per cent increase.

PepsiCo is exploring options on how to make juices as nutritious as the fruit and vegetables they originate from prior to the juice extraction. While juice is healthy, it doesn’t contain enough fibre once the juice is extracted from the fruit or vegetable.

“The juice extraction process excludes portions of the whole fruit or vegetable that would otherwise be consumed if the fruit or vegetable were to be eaten in its whole form,” says PepsiCo’s application. “A consumer who peels and eats an orange will consume an amount of edible material (e.g., including cellulosic material, membranes, albedo, pulp, etc.) which would not necessarily be present if the consumer instead drank juice extracted from the orange. “

Many juices lack some the fiber, phytonutrients, and vitamins that are present in the fruit and vegetables they were extracted from.

“A need exists for a product containing a higher viscosity with the subsequent enhanced metabolic health benefits,” the application reads.

Target Canada has reported a 63.1 per cent sales growth for the second quarter, ending on August 2. The sales during this three-month period were $499 million, thanks to the new stores that have recently opened. There was an 11.4 per cent decline in comparable sales, as this is the first period with comparable sales for Target Canada.

While the gross margin rate for the second quarter was 18.4 per cent, this is a decline from 2013’s second quarter of 31.6 per cent. Other results included a 30 per cent increase over last year’s 18 per cent from $231 million in digital sales. Meanwhile, the company’s American counterpart experienced a decrease in sales transactions by 1.3 per cent.

“While results from the quarter didn’t meet our expectations, we are seeing some early signs of progress as we work to improve results in the U.S. and Canada,” Executive Vice President John Mulligan told Grocery Business. “In the U.S., traffic trends continue to recover and monthly sales are improving, with July comparable sales up more than one per cent. Better U.S. sales have continued into August, driven by early back-to-school results. In Canada, the team is making important changes to operations and the merchandise assortment with a focus on delivering improved results by this holiday season.”

A recent study shows that tea has antioxidant properties that could reduce non-cardiovascular mortality by 24 per cent. Tea drinkers often have other positive and healthy habits that also support this conclusion, the study notes. A total of 131,401 people between the age of 18 and 95 participated in the study. Participants either did not consume any coffee or tea, consumed between one to four cups a day, or drank more than four cups a day.

Study results showed that those who drank coffee were at greater risk for cardiovascular diseases, especially those with a smoking habit. Those who drank coffee tended to smoke more often than those who did not, as only 17 per cent of coffee abstainers smoked. 45 per cent of those who did not drink coffee exercised regularly, compared to a 41 per cent of coffee drinkers. On the other hand, tea drinkers were more active, with 43 per cent of those who drank tea moderately exercising regularly versus 46 per cent of heavy tea drinkers. Heavy tea or coffee drinkers had a 4-5 mmHg higher systolic blood pressure (SBP) and a 3 mmHg lower diastolic blood pressure (DBP).

“Overall we tend to have a higher risk profile for coffee drinkers and a lower risk profile for tea drinkers,” Professor Nick Danchin of the cardiology unit at the Georges Pompidou Hospital in Paris told CTV News. “We also found big differences with gender. Men tend to drink coffee much more than women, while women tend to drink more tea than men.”